A key Democratic lawmaker and some consumer advocates are raising concerns with FDA's communication to the public during the recent salmonella outbreak that prompted a massive egg recall.

A pilot program to jointly inspect drug manufacturing facilities recently launched by FDA and its European Union counterpart could set the groundwork for further opening U.S. borders to drugs manufactured or stored abroad by harmonizing safety standards, sources said.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is raising concerns with the use of "natural" labeling, and may take its concerns to the FDA or state attorneys general if they aren't properly addressed.

This month’s massive egg recall for salmonella contamination may create momentum for the much delayed Senate version of a bill aimed to improve safety of food products manufactured in and imported into the United States by giving FDA more power to call for mandatory recalls, increase facility inspections and better identify the source of the outbreak, according to food safety advocates.

The recently unveiled Senate food safety managers package includes several provisions that fall short of the hopes of some consumer advocates, who intend to lobby for changes to the legislation that would make the bill more closely mirror the House language, focusing their efforts on the frequency of inspections, defining some critical terminology and ensuring that facility exemptions are not eventually added to the measure.

FDA is indicating that it might begin enforcing healthcare reform's food menu labeling provisions soon after the November elections, clarifying in proposed guidelines the types of establishment and products governed by the new law and that the agency will determine its enforcement timetable after the promulgation of a final policy -- which could occur as early as December.

FDA plans to establish a new council that will focus on chemical and environmental science issues, which would help the agency modernize toxicology and risk assessments across several product categories, a top agency official said this week.

Senate lawmakers have reached a deal on the long-anticipated food safety managers package while simultaneously releasing a Congressional Budget Office score of the bill that estimates the reforms would cost the government $1.4 billion over five years.

Industry is calling on FDA to ensure that food manufacturers wouldn't have to report safety problems over products that never leave their own operations as part of the agency's new congressionally mandated Reportable Food Registry, sources said.

After years of FDA cross-training its inspectors to be able to survey drug, device and food product manufacturing, the agency's first crop of food-only inspectors are close to being deployed, said a food safety source who recently attended a meeting with top FDA officials.

As Senate leaders lay plans to take up the food safety bill before the August recess, pharmacies are making a last-ditch effort to prevent lawmakers from attaching a measure that would permit the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada or Mexico.

A food safety inspection veteran will rejoin FDA next week as the associate commissioner for foods policy, a new senior advisory position established to guide the agency's rulemaking and policy agenda throughout several different centers and offices, according to an agency e-mail obtained by FDA Week.

FDA is reluctant to support labeling for genetically engineered foods despite the drumbeat growing louder for notification to consumers, with the possibility increasing that the agency will hold public meetings on transgenic salmon this fall, according to informed sources closely following the issue.

Congressional infighting between two top Democrats integral to the food safety debate signaled frustration over the Senate’s delay in considering legislation that has languished in the upper chamber for months, allowing new cost concerns to creep into the discussion and fuel lawmaker reluctance to pass the bill.

Supporters of a bill limiting antibiotic use in animal feed could obtain their first House Republican cosponsor for the hotly contested and controversial measure, a move that would boost the legislation's likelihood of passage.

Food suppliers won the initial round of a civil case in the first ruling of its kind over diacetyl, the chemical compound used as a flavoring in microwave popcorn and other foods that consumer and worker advocates blame for a rare respiratory ailment often called “popcorn lung.”

Skeptics of the wisdom of creating a new federal food regulatory agency are hoping a massive national campaign of food safety workshops being orchestrated this year by FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service could curtail calls for a new agency if the meetings can demonstrate effective inter-agency collaboration.

FDA is soliciting data from state and local regulators as it works to rapidly implement the menu labeling provision in the new healthcare reform law, and will likely appeal to states for help in enforcing the requirements, sources following the issue said.

As FDA took its next step to curb antibiotic use in feed animals by releasing a guidance on judicious use this week, supporters of limits on the drugs in agriculture said the document simply echoes the position expressed by a top agency official last summer and falls short of regulatory and legislative action needed to significantly bolster federal oversight on these products.

Two Democratic lawmakers who have called for curbs on antibiotics in animal feed are calling for the expansion of several federal programs to monitor the use of these drugs.